How much is the Mississippi Legislature willing to invest in your child’s education?
Click here to see how much state funding your district will receive next year, how much it is underfunded, and how much it has been underfunded since 2008, the last time schools received the funding required by our state law, the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP).
What if your child’s school was in one of our neighbor states? Or funded at the national average? How much are other states’ legislators willing to invest in their schools? Click here to see what your child’s school district would receive if it were funded at the average level provided per student in our neighboring states or at the national average. The most important job of any Legislature is to figure out how best to provide the basic services constituents need and expect in order to maintain a high quality of life. The decisions they make regarding revenue and expenditures are central to that task.
Mississippi legislators could soon have an opportunity to quantify what they believe is an appropriate level of support for public schools as they embark on a rewrite of our education funding law.
What metrics will they consider as they take on this critically important task? How will their effort measure up to the efforts of lawmakers in similar states? And will they allow parents and educators to be partners in this effort, with public hearings in communities across the state? These are good questions to ask your legislators.
Find contact information for legislators here. Ask the same questions of Lt. Governor Reeves, Capitol: 601.359.3200, and Speaker Gunn, Capitol: 601.359.3300.
We have heard from numerous legislators who say they, too, believe that the public should be engaged in this debate. They agree that public schools are worth the Legislature’s very best effort to ensure that students and teachers have the resources they need to be successful when competing with their peers in other states. Do your lawmakers agree?
Our Legislature expects our students to measure up in state-to-state comparisons. Shouldn’t we expect the same of our legislators? We will continue to watch for updates on the effort to rewrite the MAEP, and we promise to keep you posted! Meanwhile, ask your legislators where they stand on this issue.
